Due to the characteristics of the industry, the Company's consumption of water resources consists mainly of general water consumption for offices. The business locations have continued to increase employees' awareness of the scarcity of water resources. Water-saving appliances with water-saving marks are selected when decorating business locations. The net increase of 460 full-time employees in 2019 led to an increase in total water consumption by 2.35% from 2018.
As a financial service provider, there is no toxic waste produced during the operation. To implement waste sorting, and resource as well as waste recycling, the Company increases the awareness among employees of the Group, building management companies, and cleaning companies, and organizes training courses from time to time, so as to achieve waste classification and reduction for environmental protection, resources recycling and reuse, energy conservation and carbon reduction.
The Group launched the waste reduction program in 2018. Office waste is divided into general waste and recyclable waste. The Group also implemented the "zero personal bin" policy to reduce domestic waste produced by employees. The Group has commissioned cleaning companies to dispose of general waste. Recyclable waste is delivered to qualified recycling plants while general waste is disposed by incineration. Related statistics on the general waste (garbage) and recyclable waste (including paper, hardware, plastic, used batteries, and waste fluorescent tubes) of the Company's five main office buildings are provided below:
